Øyvind Øverli

Neurobiology Group Convenor

Dr. Øyvind Øverli graduated with a PhD in the topic “Animal Development and Genetics” at Uppsala University in 2001, defending his thesis “Behavioural and neuroendocrine effects of stress in salmonid fish”. Supervised by Dr. Svante Winberg, the thesis work combined comparative research on behavioral and neuroendocrine correlates of social position with the then emerging framework for individual variation in stress responsiveness, a.k.a coping styles or “animal personality”. Øverli then held a postdoctoral appointment in laboratory of Cliff Summers at the University of South Dakota, where he continued to explore the interaction between coping style and social rank. A postdoctoral grant with Göran Nilsson in Oslo thereafter paved the way for developing this line of research into an independent research program on plasticity of the brain and circulatory system as key traits conferring tractable variation in stress and disease resistance. This work is summarized in recent invited reviews in General and Comparative Endocrinology (2013) and Brain Behavior & Evolution (2016). Presently, after re-locating to Norway’s school of veterinary medicine, the lab explores neuroimmune crosstalk and the role of parasites and pathogens as selective agents in the evolution of animal personalities and coping styles.